Armand Spitz (1904-1971)

Guest post by Ethan Christensen 

The character for the re-enactment is Armand Spitz, a planetarium designer who was born in Philadelphia in 1904. He attended public schools and was enrolled in both the University of
Pennsylvania and Cincinnati but never received a degree. He then began to work as a journalist and reporter to create his newspaper. He achieved this goal by saving up to purchase the Township News in Brookline, Pennsylvania, and founded the Spitz Publishing Company. The venture was short-lived as the wrath of the Great Depression caused Spitz to lose his company. His interest in the stars followed while he was working on a freighter and learned celestial navigation, he then created a sextant out of a water-filled dish pan, a board, and a toothpick. This ignited the spark and he began his fascination with creating simplified astronomical instruments.

He then served as an assistant astronomer and lecturer at Haverford College but was never able to become a faculty member where he lectured due to his lack of a formal astronomical education degree. As a result, Spitz referred to himself as an “interpreter of science.” His passion and love for astronomy led him to create many astronomical projects, including an accessible, low-cost planetarium and planetarium project to show everyone the wonders of astronomy. This project had its roots in Armand showing star shows to his daughter at their home. He saw the awe of everyone at planetarium shows but felt it was a shame that only those who lived close to a city or had the money to house the expensive equipment of the time could see them. In the words of astronomy historian Jordan Marché, “Spitz’s accomplishment enacted the single greatest transformation of the American planetarium community.” During the re-enactment, I will be acting as Mr. Spitz since one of his successful low-cost, accessible Spitz A3P projectors has been used in the Manfred Olson Planetarium since 1965. Spitz passed away in 1971, his legacy lives on through his incredibly successful planetarium and projector designs. In a final message sent to the planetarium community he summed up his life with the following "The fact remains that into a sea of relative placidity, I was privileged to drop the proverbial pebble and the ripples have been moving outward ever since."

For further information and more detailed accounts of Spitz’s fascinating life, please reference the works cited below!

 

Works Cited

 

"Armand Spitz." Wikimedia. Last modified July 11, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Spitz.

DiAbbatantuono, Brent P. "Armand Spitz—Seller of Stars." International Planetarium Society, August 1994 - March 1995. https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/a_abbatantuono1995.

Dixon, Mark E. "Exploring Armand Spitz’s Love for Stars." Main Line Today, March 27, 2014. https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/exploring-armand-spitzs-love-for-stars/.

Fortier, Rénald. "Blessed Be the One Who Brings the Wonders of the Cosmos to the Multitude: Armand Neustadter Spitz and His Planetarium Projectors, Part 1." The Ingenium Channel, May 29, 2022. https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/articles/blessed-be-the-one-who-brings-the-wonders-of-the-cosmos-to-the-multitude-armand.

Fortier, Rénald. "Blessed Be the One Who Brings the Wonders of the Cosmos to the Multitude: Armand Neustadter Spitz and His Planetarium Projectors, Part 2." The Ingenium Channel, June 1, 2022. https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/articles/blessed-be-the-one-who-brings-the-wonders-of-the-cosmos-to-the-multitude-armand.

Spitz-Rice, Verne, Joyce Towne, and Chadds Ford. "Who Was Armand Spitz? Father, Husband, Educator, Innovator." Planetarian, December 1, 2013. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.ips-planetarium.org/resource/resmgr/pdf-pubs/Rice_and_Towne_Armand_Spitz_.pdf.